The examples and perspective in this article may not represent a worldwide view of the subject. Please improve this article and discuss the issue on the talk page. (July 2007)

Royal bedroom in the Residenz Palace, Munich, Bavaria

A bedroom is a private room where people usually sleep for the night or relax during the day. About one third of our lives are spent sleeping and most of the time we are asleep, we are sleeping in a bedroom.^[1] To be considered a bedroom the room needs to have a bed. Bedrooms can range from really simple to fairly complex. Other standard furnishings a typical bedroom usually has are, a closet, nightstand, desk, and dresser. Today in richer countries that have houses with multiple bedrooms, a bathroom may be connected to the bedroom. This did not start happening until the mid to late twentieth century. ^[2]

History[link]

Furnishings[link]

Furniture and other items in bedrooms vary greatly, depending on taste and local tradition. For instance, a master bedroom may include a bed of a specific size (double, king or queen-sized); one or more dressers (or perhaps, a wardrobe armoire); a nightstand; one or more closets; and carpeting. Built-in closets are less common in Europe than in North America; thus there is greater use of freestanding wardrobes or armoires in Europe.

An individual’s bedroom is a reflection of one’s personality, as well as social class, and is unique to each person. However there are certain items that are common in most bedrooms. Mattresses and closets are the necessities in a bedroom. Mattresses usually have a bed set to raise the mattress off the ground and it provides some decoration. There are many different types of mattresses, in the 14th century the lower class slept on mattresses that were stuffed with straw. During the 16th century mattresses stuffed with feathers started to gain popularity, with those who could afford them. The common person was doing well if he could buy a mattress after seven years of marriage. ^[3]. In the 18th century cotton and wool started to become more common. The first coil spring mattress wasn’t invented until 1871. ^[4]. The most common and most purchased mattress is the innerspring mattress.^[5] The variety of choices range from relatively soft to a rather firm mattress. An inner spring mattress can cost from $199 to $1290.^[6] A bedroom may have bunk beds if more than one person share a room. Night stands are also rather popular. They are used to put various items on, such as an alarm clock or a small lamp. Having a television in a bedroom is fairly common as well. 43% of children from ages 3 to 4 have a television in their bedrooms. ^[7] Along with televisions many bedrooms also have computers, video game consoles, which are more popular among teenagers, and a desk to do work. In the late 20th century and early 21st century the bedroom became a more social environment and people started to spend a lot more time in their bedroom than in the past.

Bedding used in northern Europe (especially in Scandinavia) is significantly different from that used in North America and other parts of Europe. In Japan futons are common.

In addition to a bed (or, if shared by two or more children, a bunk bed), a child's bedroom may include a small closet or dressers, a toy box or computer game console, bookcase or other items.

Modern bedrooms[link]

Many houses in America have at least two bedrooms—usually a master bedroom and one or more bedrooms for either the children or guests.

In some jurisdictions there are basic features (such as a closet and a "means of egress") that a room must have in order to legally qualify as a bedroom. In many states, such as Alaska, bedrooms are not required to have closets and must instead meet minimum size requirements.

Closets are a necessity in a bedroom. A closet by definition is a small space used to store things. In a bedroom, a closet is most commonly used for clothes and other small personal items that one may have. Walk in closets are more popular today and vary in size. However, in the past wardrobes have been the most prominent. A wardrobe is a tall rectangular shaped cabinet that clothes can be stored or hung in. Clothes are also kept in a dresser. Typically nicer clothes are kept in the closet because they can be hung up while leisure clothing and undergarments are stored in the dresser.

In buildings with multiple self-contained housing units (e.g., apartments), the number of bedrooms varies widely. While many such units have at least one bedroom—frequently, these units have at least two—some of these units may not have a specific room dedicated for use as a bedroom. (These units may be known by various names, including studio, efficiency, bedsit, and others.)

Sometimes, a master bedroom is connected to a dedicated bathroom, often called an ensuite.

See also[link]

Look up bedroom in Wiktionary, the free dictionary.

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Bedrooms

• Cabin (ship)
• Comforter
• Laundry room
• Nursery (room)

References[link]

Bret Easton Ellis
Born	(1964-03-07) March 7, 1964 (age 48) Los Angeles, California
Occupation	novelist
Genres	Satire
Literary movement	Postmodern, Transgressive
Influences Ernest Hemingway, Joan Didion, Raymond Carver, Don DeLillo, Philip Roth, Stephen King, F. Scott Fitzgerald, William Faulkner, James Joyce, Gustave Flaubert, Honoré de Balzac, Truman Capote, Raymond Chandler (with regard to Imperial Bedrooms)
Influenced Michel Houellebecq, Christian Kracht, Chuck Palahniuk, Joe McGinniss Jr., Alberto Fuguet
www.breteastonellis.com

Bret Easton Ellis (born March 7, 1964 in Los Angeles, California) is an American novelist and short story writer. His works have been translated into 27 languages.^[1] He was regarded as one of the so-called literary Brat Pack,^[2] which also included Tama Janowitz and Jay McInerney. He is a self-proclaimed satirist, whose trademark technique, as a writer, is the expression of extreme acts and opinions in an affectless style.^[3][4] Ellis employs a technique of linking novels with common, recurring characters.

Though Ellis made his debut at 21 with the controversial 1985 bestseller Less Than Zero, a zeitgeist novel about amoral young people in Los Angeles; the work he is most known for is his third novel, 1991's American Psycho. On its release, the literary establishment widely condemned the novel as overly violent and misogynistic; though many petitions to ban the book saw Ellis dropped by Simon & Schuster, the resounding controversy made it a paperback bestseller for Alfred A. Knopf later that year. Four of Ellis' works have been made into films; notably, Less Than Zero was rapidly adapted for screen, and a starkly different Less Than Zero film was released in 1987, and Mary Harron's adaptation of American Psycho was released to predominantly positive reviews in 2000. In later years, Ellis' novels have become increasingly metafictional. 2005's Lunar Park, a pseudo-memoir and ghost story, received positive reviews, and 2010's Imperial Bedrooms, marketed as a sequel to Less Than Zero, continues in this vein.

Work[link]

Ellis' first novel, Less Than Zero, a tale of disaffected, rich teenagers of Los Angeles, was praised by critics and sold well (50,000 copies in its first year). He moved back to New York City in 1987 for the publication of his second novel, The Rules of Attraction, which follows a group of sexually promiscuous college students and sold fairly well, though Ellis admits he felt he had "fallen off", after the novel failed to match the success of his debut effort. His most controversial work is the graphically violent American Psycho. The book was intended to be published by Simon & Schuster, but they withdrew after external protests from groups such as the National Organization for Women (NOW) and many others due to the allegedly misogynistic nature of the book. The novel was later published by Vintage. Some consider this novel, whose protagonist, Patrick Bateman, is both a cartoonishly materialistic yuppie and a serial killer, to be an example of transgressive art. American Psycho has achieved considerable cult status.

His collection of short stories, The Informers, was published in 1994. It contains vignettes of wayward Los Angeles characters ranging from rock stars to vampires, mostly written while Ellis was in college, and so has more in common with the style of Less Than Zero. Ellis has said that the stories in The Informers were collected and released only to fulfill a contractual obligation after discovering that it would take far longer to complete his next novel than he'd intended. After years of struggling with it, Ellis released his fourth novel Glamorama in 1998. Glamorama is set in the world of high fashion, following a male model who becomes entangled in a bizarre terrorist organization composed entirely of other models. The book plays with themes of media, celebrity, and political violence, and like its predecessor American Psycho it uses surrealism to convey a sense of postmodern dread. Ellis's novel Lunar Park (2005), uses the form of a celebrity memoir to tell a ghost story about the novelist "Bret Easton Ellis" and his chilling experiences in the apparently haunted home he shares with his wife and son. In keeping with his usual style, Ellis mixes absurd comedy with a bleak and violent vision. Imperial Bedrooms (2010) follows the characters of Less Than Zero 25 years later; it combines the violence of American Psycho and the postmodernism of Lunar Park with the unaltered ennui of Ellis' debut novel.

Biography[link]

Ellis was born to a wealthy California household. His father, who he said was abusive, became the basis of Ellis's most well-known character Patrick Bateman, and the frosty relationship between Victor and his father in Glamorama is based in part on this as well. He attended Bennington College, where he met and befriended fellow writers Donna Tartt, Jonathan Lethem, Francis Lombard and Joseph McLaughlin, none of whom were aware of his literary aspirations. After rising to fame with Less Than Zero in 1985, Ellis became closely associated and good friends with fellow Brat Pack writer Jay McInerney: the two became known as the "toxic twins". The writer became a pariah for a time following American Psycho (1991), which later became a cult hit, more so after its 2000 movie adaptation. It is now regarded as Ellis' magnum opus and is favorably looked upon by academics. The Informers (1994) was offered to his publisher during Glamorama's long writing history. Ellis wrote a screenplay for The Rules of Attraction's film adaptation which was not used. Ellis records a fictionalized version of his life story up until this point in the first chapter of Lunar Park (2005). After the death of his lover Michael Wade Kaplan, Ellis was spurred to finish Lunar Park and inflected it with a new tone of wistfulness.^[5] In Lunar Park, through his fictional alter ego and the character's relationship with his own son, Ellis resolved some of the issues surrounding his father.^{[citation needed]}

Later, Ellis was approached by young screenwriter Nicholas Jarecki to adapt The Informers into a film; the script they co-wrote was cut from 150 to 94 pages and taken from Jarecki to give to Australian director Gregor Jordan, whose light-on-humor vision of the film was met with unanimously negative reviews when the film was released in 2009. Despite setbacks as a screenwriter, Ellis teamed up with acclaimed director Gus Van Sant in 2009 to adapt the Vanity Fair article "The Golden Suicides" into a film of the same name, depicting the paranoid final days and suicides of celebrity artists Theresa Duncan and Jeremy Blake. In 2010, Ellis released the sequel to his debut novel, in the form of Imperial Bedrooms. Ellis wrote it following his own return to LA and fictionalises his work on the film adaptation of The Informers, from the perspective of Clay. Positive reviews felt it was a culmination of the themes began respectively in Less Than Zero, American Psycho and Lunar Park. Negative reviews noted the novel's rehashed themes and listless writing.

Personal life[link]

When asked an interview in 2002 whether or not he was gay, Ellis explained that he does not identify himself as gay or straight. He explained that he is comfortable to be thought of as gay, bisexual or heterosexual and that he enjoys playing with his persona, identifying variously as gay, straight and bi to different people over the years.^[6] In a 1999 interview, the author puts forward that his reluctance to definitively label his sexuality (in his own words, he is "very coy and weird about it") is for "artistic reasons", because "if people knew that I was straight, they'd read [my books] in a different way. If they knew I was gay, 'Psycho' would be read as a different book."^[7] In an interview with Robert F. Coleman, Ellis refers to his as an "indeterminate sexuality", and said "any other interviewer out there will get a different answer and it just depends on the mood I am in".^[8] In a 2011 interview with James Brown, Ellis again states that his answers to questions about his sexuality have varied from interviewer to interviewer, citing an example where his reluctance to refuse the label "bi" had him labelled as such by a Details interviewer. "I think the last time I slept with a woman was five or six years ago, so the bi thing can only be played out so long," he clarifies. "But I still use it, I still say it."^[9] Responding to Dan Savage's It Gets Better campaign, aimed at preventing suicide among LGBT youth, Ellis tweeted "Not to bum everyone out, but can we get a reality check here? It gets worse."^[10]

In his semi-autobiographical novel Lunar Park, the fictional Bret continues both transient affairs and long-term relationships with men and women at various points in the novel. Lunar Park was dedicated to his lover, Michael Wade Kaplan, and Ellis's father, Robert Ellis, about whom he speaks openly in interviews promoting the novel. Robert Ellis died in 1992. In one interview, Ellis describes feeling a liberation, in the completion of the novel, that allowed him to come to terms with unresolved issues regarding his father.^[11] In the "author Q&A" for Lunar Park on the Random House website, Ellis comments on his relationship with his father, and says he feels that his father was a "tough case" who left him damaged. Having grown older and having "mellow[ed] out", Ellis describes how his opinion of his father changed since 15 years ago when writing Glamorama (in which the central conspiracy concerns the relationship of a father and son).^[12] Even earlier in his career, Ellis based the character of Patrick Bateman from American Psycho on his father.^[13] In a 2010 interview, however, he claims to have "lied" about this explanation. Explaining that "Patrick Bateman was about me", he confesses "I didn’t want to finally own up to the responsibility of being Patrick Bateman, so I laid it on my father, I laid it on Wall Street." In reality, the book had been "about me at the time, and I wrote about all my rage and feelings".^[8] To James Brown, he clarified Bateman was based on "My father a little bit but I was living that lifestyle, my father wasn’t in New York the same age as Patrick Bateman, living in the same building, going to the same places that Patrick Bateman was going to".^[9]

Fictional setting and recurring characters[link]

Ellis often uses recurring characters and settings. Major characters in one novel may become minor ones in the next, or vice versa. Camden College, a fictional New England liberal arts college, is frequently referenced. It is based on Bennington College, which Ellis himself attended, where he met future novelist Jonathan Lethem and befriended fellow writers Donna Tartt and Jill Eisenstadt. In Tartt's The Secret History (1992), her version of Bennington is given as "Hampden College", although there are oblique connections between it and Ellis' Rules of Attraction. Eisenstat and Lethem, however, use 'Camden' in From Rockaway (1987) and The Fortress of Solitude (2003), respectively. Though his three major settings are Vermont, Los Angeles and New York, he doesn't think of these novels as about these places; they are intentionally more universal than that.^[14]

Camden is introduced in Less Than Zero, where it is mentioned that both protagonist Clay and minor character Daniel attend it. In The Rules of Attraction (1987), where Camden is the setting, Clay (referred to as "The Guy from L.A." before being properly introduced) is a minor character who narrates one chapter; ironically, he longs for the Californian beach, where in Ellis' previous novel he had longed to return to college. On "the guy from L.A.'s door someone wrote "Rest In Peace Called"; R.I.P., or Rip, is Clay's dealer in Less Than Zero; Clay also says that Blair from Less than Zero sent him a letter saying she thinks Rip was murdered. Main character Sean Bateman's older brother Patrick narrates one chapter of the novel; he will be the infamous central character of Ellis' next novel, American Psycho. Ellis includes a reference to Tartt's forthcoming Secret History in the form of a passing mention of "that weird Classics group... probably roaming the countryside sacrificing farmers and performing pagan rituals". There is also an allusion to the main character from Eidenstadt's From Rockaway.

In American Psycho (1991), Patrick's brother Sean appears briefly. Paul Denton and Victor Johnson from The Rules of Attraction are both mentioned; on seeing Paul, Patrick wonders if "maybe he was on that cruise a long time ago, one night last March. If that's the case, I'm thinking, I should get his telephone number or, better yet, his address." Camden is referred to as both Sean's college and the college a minor character named Vanden is going to. Vanden was referred to (but never appeared) in both Less Than Zero and The Rules of Attraction. Passages from "Less Than Zero" reappear, almost verbatim, here, with Patrick replacing Clay as narrator. Patrick also makes repeated references to Jami Gertz, the actress who portrays Blair in the 1987 film adaptation of Less Than Zero. Allison Poole from Jay McInerney's 1988 novel Story of My Life appears as a torture victim of Patrick's. 1994's The Informers features a much-younger Timothy Price, one of Patrick's co-workers in American Psycho, who narrates one chapter. One of the central characters, Graham, buys concert tickets from Less Than Zero's Julian, and his sister Susan goes on to say that Julian sells heroin and is a male prostitute (as shown in Zero). Alana and Blair from Zero are also friends of Susan's. Letters to Sean Bateman to a Camden College girl named Anne visiting grandparents in LA comprise the eighth chapter.

Patrick Bateman appears briefly in Glamorama (1998); Glamorama's main characters Victor Ward and Lauren Hynde were first introduced in The Rules of Attraction. As an in-joke reference to Bateman being portrayed by Christian Bale in the then-in-production 2000 film adaptation, the actor himself briefly appears as a background character. The book also includes a spy called Russell who is physically identical to Bale, and at one point in the novel impersonates him. Jamie Fields, who has a major role in the book, was first briefly mentioned by Victor in The Rules of Attraction. Bertrand, Sean and Mitchell, all from The Rules of Attraction, appear in a Camden flashbacks and several other Rules characters are referenced. McInerney's Alison Poole makes her second appearance in an Ellis novel as Victor's mistress. Lunar Park (2005) is not set in the same "universe" as Ellis' other novels, but contains a similar multitude of references and allusions. All the author's previous works are heavily referenced, in keeping with the book-within-a-book structure. Jay McInerney cameos. Donald Kimball from American Psycho questions Ellis on a series of American Psycho-inspired murders, Mitchell Allen from Rules lives next door to and went to college with Ellis (Ellis even recalls his affair with Paul Denton, alluded to in Rules), and Ellis recalls a tempestuous relationship with Blair from Zero. Imperial Bedrooms (2010) establishes the conceit that the Clay depicted in Zero is not the same Clay who narrates Bedrooms. In the world of Imperial Bedrooms, Zero was the close-to-non-fiction work of an author friend of Clay's, and its film adaptation (featuring actors Andrew McCarthy, Jami Gertz and Robert Downey, Jr.) exists within the world of the novel, too.

Bibliography[link]

• Less Than Zero (1985)
• The Rules of Attraction (1987)
• American Psycho (1991)
• The Informers (1994)
• Glamorama (1998)
• Lunar Park (2005)
• Imperial Bedrooms (2010)

See also[link]

Novels portal

• List of novelists from the United States
• List of horror fiction authors
• Transgressional fiction

Footnotes[link]

External links[link]

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Bret Easton Ellis

Wikimedia Commons has media related to: Bret Easton Ellis

• Official website of Bret Easton Ellis
• Bret Easton Ellis at the Internet Movie Database

It has been proposed that Kate Plus 8 be renamed and moved (Discuss).

Jon & Kate Plus 8, restyled Kate Plus 8 for seasons six and seven, was an American reality television series airing on TLC. It was produced by Figure 8 Films about the (non-fictional) Gosselin family, consisting of parents Jon and Kate and their eight children: fraternal twins (both girls) and sextuplets (three boys and three girls). The show follows the family through their daily lives, focusing on the challenges of raising multiple children. The show was one of the highest rated programs on TLC during its run,^[1] with the fifth season premiere seen by a record 9.8 million viewers, the most watched show of that evening including broadcast television, twice as many viewers as the show’s previous series high.^[2]

The family originally appeared in two one-hour specials titled Surviving Sextuplets and Twins and Sextuplets and Twins: One Year Later. The show originally aired on Discovery Health, but then aired on TLC from the third season on.

On September 29, 2009, following the Gosselins' separation, TLC announced that as of November 2, the program would undergo a name change, to Kate Plus 8,^[3] focusing on Kate as a divorced mother raising eight children with Jon appearing less frequently.^[3] However, filming was later suspended due to Jon's lawyers delivering letters to TLC demanding that they cease and desist production and barred production crews from the couple's Pennsylvania property on October 1, 2009.^[4][5][6] This led to putting the show's revamping on hold. TLC planned for "a series of specials" if the series did not go into production.^[6]

The final episode of Jon & Kate Plus 8 aired on November 23, 2009, announced by TLC three days earlier.^[7][8] The revamped Kate Plus Eight format premiered on June 6, 2010.^[9] The second season of Kate Plus 8 premiered on April 4, 2011. However, On August 15, 2011, TLC cancelled Kate Plus 8 and said that the show will end after it hits 150 episodes. The last episode aired on September 12, 2011. ^[10]

Family[link]

Parents

• Katie "Kate" Irene (née Kreider) - (1975-03-28) March 28, 1975 (age 37)^[11]
• Jonathan "Jon" Keith - (1977-04-01) April 1, 1977 (age 35)^[11]

Twins - (2000-10-08) October 8, 2000 (age 11)

• Cara Nicole
• Madelyn "Mady" Kate

Sextuplets - (2004-05-10) May 10, 2004 (age 8)

• Alexis Faith
• Hannah Joy
• Aaden Jonathan
• Collin Thomas
• Leah Hope
• Joel Kevin

Production[link]

The Gosselin family on the cover of KoreAm in May 2008

Between the specials and the series, permanent light fixtures were installed in the Gosselins' second home to make filming easier and prevent the kids from tripping over the wires and cables from temporary lighting. Jon & Kate Plus 8 filmed three days per week, with one day used for interview sessions where Jon, Kate and occasionally the children, discussed events occurring in each episode. In the family's first house, the "interview corner" was located in the basement, and was transformed from the playroom when needed. It was painted green, unlike the rest of the playroom. In their new house, the interview set was reproduced in an unfinished area of the basement. At season four's finale, Jon and Kate said they would make a new set for season five.

Criticisms were raised regarding Kate's intentions of continuing with the show, as well as whether or not the children were being exploited or were under emotional distress.^[12] According to lawyer Gloria Allred, "Every state does regulate to protect the health, the safety and welfare of little child performers [...] And these little ones are only eight years old and five years old, they can’t protect themselves, so the state has to be sure that they are safe in their workplace."^[12] In the case of the show, the children's workplace is their home. At this point there are no clear laws in Pennsylvania (where the Gosselins reside) regarding a child's appearance on a reality show.^[13] However, Pennsylvania law permits kids who are at least seven years old to work in the entertainment industry, as long as certain guidelines are followed and a permit is obtained. For example, children may not work after 11:30 p.m. under most circumstances, or perform in any location that serves alcohol.^[13]

Kate says that the children were happy and healthy and were never in any danger from doing the show. Jon stated they were "in talks" regarding ensuring the children's happiness,^[12] and that there is no truth to any reports that the children have been hurt by the series.^[14] TLC released a statement saying that the network "fully complies with all applicable laws and regulations" to produce the show. The statement also said that "for an extended period of time, we have been engaged in cooperative discussions and supplied all requested information to the Pennsylvania Department of Labor and Industry".^[13]

An investigation by the Pennsylvania Bureau of Labor Law Compliance found that "The activity being filmed was spontaneous. However, children introduced episodes of the television show and transitions. DVDs and other merchandise were sold involving the children's appearance. Lighting was placed in the home for the show and there was product placement in some episodes."^[15] Because of these reasons, the children were considered to be working on the show, and the show was required to obtain work permits for the children, which it did not do.^[15] An agreement was reached that no charges would be filed immediately as long as no further violations would occur.^[15]

Multimedia[link]

Books[link]

The Gosselins were managed by Media Motion International in Los Angeles.^[16]

Kate Gosselin has written three books: one called Multiple Blessings (co-authored with Beth Carson and Jon), which was released November 1, 2008, Eight Little Faces in April 2009, and I Just Want You to Know on April 13, 2010.

DVDs[link]

Online releases[link]

Episodes of the series are available for download from the iTunes Store, Amazon Instant Video, and Microsoft Zune Marketplace, as well as for viewing on Netflix.

References[link]

External links[link]

• TLC: Kate + 8
• http://www.influence-music.com/ Show composers Scott Pearson & David Imhof
• Figure 8 Films - Surviving Sextuplets & Twins
• Jon & Kate Plus 8 at the Internet Movie Database
• Jon & Kate Plus 8 at TV.com
• "List of Jon & Kate Plus 8 episodes". TVGuide. http://www.tvguide.com/tvshows/jon-kate-plus-8/287169.